GregHowley.com

Talk today about the PS3 and the fact that they're dropping the price of the Playstation 2 to $129 got me to thinking about how many fantastic PS2 games are out there for people who may have never gotten a chance to try them.

Now, I loved the Metal Gear Solid games, and I also like Katamari Damacy a lot, but they're not in my top five. I also hear very good things about Guitar Hero, but I've never played it. Lastly, I'm dying to pick up a copy of Resident Evil 4, and I suspect that it would be at the top of my top five list had I played it, but I haven't yet had the pleasure.

God of War: I'm still not through with God of War, but I'm loving the game. It's essentially an action-adventure in which you fight hordes of bad guys. The controls are incredibly responsive, making the best use of an analog stick I've ever seen. It's got a strong base in Greek mythology, so you'll be fighting minotaurs, gorgons, and Cerberus-like two-headed dogs. The game has excellent puzzles. You'll still question why someone would have built a place this centered around massive puzzles and blades of death, but they're so much fun that you won't care.

One of the coolest aspects of God of War is the mini-games. When fighting certain monsters, especially boss monsters, you will at some points see the icon of a button or a joystick motion over the creature's head. Perform that action and another appears. Complete a series of motions, and you'll severely damage or kill the monster. And the animation for what your character does during these motions is the best part - dive under the minotaur's legs, climb up his back, hit him a few times, et cetera.

Best thing about God of War? Boobies. There's a reason it's rated M, kids.

Shadow of the Colossus: If nothing else, Shadow of the Colossus is very different from other games. It is beautiful in its simplicity, and very cinematic. I only wish I'd had my PS2 wired to my TV via S-Video cable so I could have better enjoyed the scenery.

At its heart, Shadow of the Colossus is a series of boss battles. The gameplay involves simply locating and fighting sixteen colossi. You have the same sword and same bow from the beginning to the end of the game, and there's no leveling up, no quests, and not even any conversation. But the colossus battles are epic.

Firstly, when you fight a colossus, you're fighting a creature the size of a skyscraper. The scale is unbelievable, and the game designers really give you a sense of how immense the colossi are. Secondly, the battles against colossi are actually puzzles. They have certain vulnerable spots, and defeating them involves locating those vulnerable spots and figuring out how to get to them.

There were some issues with the camera angle, but overall I loved the game, and I will replay it someday. For my full review, click here.

Indigo Prophecy: This is a game I'm actually aching to go back and play. Of course, I can't do that until I'm done with Oblivion in maybe... 8 months, but I will replay Indigo Prophecy. Indigo Prophecy is an adventure game, but it surpasses such greats as Syberia and Myst through the addition of action elements and minigames.

You start out playing Lucas, an ordinary man who awakes in a diner restroom to find that he has apparently brutally murdered someone. You go through the motions of hiding the evidence, moving the mouse (or joypad) just so to mop up the blood, and escape the police. Then you switch, and you play the detectives that are trying to figure out what happened.

The minigames range from button-mashers to run faster, to DDR-like sequences where you have to press specific buttons quickly and in the right order, to balancing acts in which you have to control your breating to avoid hyperventilating or walk across a tightrope. There are even a few stealth sequences remniscient of Metal Gear Solid or Beyond Good and Evil. It is fantastic.

I played this game on the PC, but soon after I bought a playstation 2 copy so that my wife could give it a try. She likes to sit on the couch while she plays. For my full review, click here.

Psychonauts: Psychonauts is the only game I've ever played that has made me laugh out loud. And it did so multiple times. The game's premise is that a kid snuck into a summer camp for psychics, and is rushing to complete his training before his irate father shows up to bring him home to the circus. Most of the game's humor is of the chuckle-to-yourself variety, but the game has some truly great moments, most notably the one that takes place within the mind of a hulking lungfish.

I played this game on the PC too, but I'm grouping it with these playstation games because the game is really designed for play with a joypad. When I replayed the game, I used a joypad and it made all the difference in the world. The only reason I stopped replaying it before completing the final level is because I got a copy of Oblivion. For my full review of Psychonauts, click here.

Beyond Good and Evil: I've saved the best for last, and Beyond Good and Evil is one of my favorite games of all time, largely because it includes little bits of everything. Some fighting, some platforming, some vehicle driving, some collecting, some first-person shooting, a minigame, and a whole lot of stealth action. Once again, I played this game on the PC, but the control scheme is really set up for a joypad. I've played the game start to finish twice, and I can't wait for a sequel. Full review here.